Thursday, June 30, 2011

Man demonstrating safety features on handgun unintentionally shoots and kills himself

23-year-old Randall Butler of Sanford, North Carolina was showing off the safety features of his new handgun to friends when he unintentionally shot and killed himself. Butler was telling his friends that if the safety was engaged on the gun you could pull the trigger and nothing would happen. So he put the .22-caliber semi-automatic handgun to his head and pulled the trigger.
According to police, "He had held the gun up to his head and pulled the trigger and it went 'click' but it didn't go off." His friends told him to stop and put the gun away but Butler continued. He pulled the slide back and chambered a round, then put the gun to the side of his head for a second time. That time the gun fired.
Police said it appeared that Butler took the weapon off of safe when he pulled the slide, and forgot to re-engage the safety before he pulled the trigger. It did not appear alcohol or drugs were involved in the incident.

Ohh Shoot highlights unintentional shootings. Some might refer to these as accidental shootings, but accident is too often interpreted as unavoidable. The shootings on this blog did not have to happen. Safe storage, better gun design, gun safety training are just some of the measures that could have prevented these tragedies.